Las Lenas, Aug. 8-22, 2009 by Adam

[Tony Crocker]

No powder now, weather has cleared and spring conditions are reported. BUT Marte is reported open today. \/ \/ \/

As at La Grave the terrain is more important than the pow. Much better to have Marte open with spring conditions than closed with powder. Corn is potentially outstanding, not that ersatz eastern variety we debate on these boards. But timing is key; I'm sure Patrick will find some people to provide local guidance. Needless to say with Marte open Patrick should stick with original plan and not delay arriving at Las Lenas. I would also expect that it's still winter snow along the Marte liftline and other south facing steeps.

 

[Geoff]

Corn is potentially outstanding, not that ersatz eastern variety we debate on these boards.

When things warmed up in Chile, I saw an awful lot of slides on the steep out-of-bounds terrain. I was there once when they had 6 straight days where it got up into the 60's. There were quite a few places I'd been skiing that broke loose a few days later. I don't have the snow safety skills to know when I'm at risk in that kind of condition and there's certainly not a heck of a lot of local expertise.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Portllo closed the Roca Jack side by noon in the warm weather, presumably to keep us away from possible wet slides. So I would advise Patrick to get up Marte in the morning and avoid the east-facing runs to the resort center after lunch. Which is what Extremely Canadian did with us the one day it was open. After lunch we stuck with the south facing runs near the lift.

 

[Patrick]

Corn is potentially outstanding, not that ersatz eastern variety we debate on these boards.

When things warmed up in Chile, I saw an awful lot of slides on the steep out-of-bounds terrain. I was there once when they had 6 straight days where it got up into the 60's. There were quite a few places I'd been skiing that broke loose a few days later. I don't have the snow safety skills to know when I'm at risk in that kind of condition and there's certainly not a heck of a lot of local expertise.

A quick comment:

Temps were real high. Surfaces frooze overnight. Wet slides were a high possibility later in the day. (see my shorten TR). Yes, there is corn at the end of the day.

 

[Skiace]

It's been requested that I post some pictures from my trip, so here we go. I didn't take all that many myself, so this is a mash up of mine and some that other friends took.

First off, some scenery from the first few days. Entre Rios, which I didn't have the stamina to hike when I first showed up. I had hoped to get up there after the storm but then Marte broke.

Next Cerro Negro with Torecillas in the background. The arrow marks the chute I skied my first full day, after bailing on the longer hike to Torecillas. The snow in there was excellent for having been 5+ days old. Good southerly exposure, steep, and relatively protected by the rocks.

The next day (Monday the 10th), we headed up Cerro Martin for a quick lap.

Then it started snowing. Here's a shot of our soviet-bloc era lodging getting buried and leaking.

more snow

Then it started to get really good. On the big powder day off Vulcano, I didn't ski with Jason and Nick (who has the good camera) so I'm not in any shots this gorgeous. But basically it looked like this all day.... Jason:

Nick:

Jason again:

Myself at 3:30pm

The next day (a full week after the storm started) we started hiking again, as the weather was beautiful but Marte was still broken. Here's me (far left) hiking past some of our friends as they drool over the Oakley team. (Kye Petterson and Seth Morrison were up there somewhere)

Same hike, I took this picture the other direction towards the cameraman from the previous shot. Torrecillas and Cerro Negro in the background.

Myself, enjoying the fruits of that labor:

There was a lot to ski there and I feel like even after two trips and three total weeks I've barely seen half of it. Thanks to Admin btw for the pack, it served me very well the whole trip.

 

[rfarren]

Those are some pretty photos. Looks like fun!

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Looks fantastic.

Based on dozens of TRs that I've read over the years, it sounds like you should basically assume that Marte will not be in operation.

 

[Skiace]

Looks fantastic.

Based on dozens of TRs that I've read over the years, it sounds like you should basically assume that Marte will not be in operation.

If you made that assumption, it wouldn't be worth going there. Marte is what makes Las Lenas leaps and bounds better than other southern hemisphere skiing. It is so much better that we are willing to put up with the A-factor and down days just to get it when it's good.

I think the proper assumption is that over any long enough time frame ( >1 week), Marte will be open somewhere around 30-50% of days. Considering there's pretty much zero storm-day skiing as well, you need to be able to commit as much time as possible to get the most out of Las Lenas. I feel 2-3 weeks is the minimum.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Considering there's pretty much zero storm-day skiing

This is pretty much true anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere as the tree line is so low.

Unfortunately Las Lenas is not the only place where the TISA factor applies either. On another South America thread some one was lamenting that "Chillan is so much better than Valle Nevado for snow and terrain, but they don't care as much about getting lifts open." Patrick's Chillan experience was in many ways like a typical Las Lenas trip. The quality was great once some terrain opened, but they had to wait a couple of days for that, and even on the good days not everything was running.

 

[Patrick]

Happy to see some pics. God knows if i'll ever see mine. :-( Odds are 0.00001%

The details of Patrick's trip, both skiing and the unfortunate end in Buenos Aires, can be followed here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8146